Miranda Lambert’s ‘The House That Built Me’ Impacts NASCAR Driver

At the 2011 Grammy Awards, Miranda Lambert took home a coveted award for Best Female Country Vocal Performance for her stirring single ‘The House That Built Me.’ It was one of those songs that came out of the pipeline resonating deeply with people across the country. NASCAR driver Jamie McMurray recently told Scene Daily that the song took on new meaning for him after his childhood Joplin, Mo. home was ripped to pieces by one of the deadliest tornadoes to tear through the U.S. in decades.

The May 22 tornado, which resulted in the deaths of more than 150 people, left a scar more than seven miles wide in the middle of the city and threw debris up to 70 miles away, shook McMurray to his core. Though he had been aware of the destruction in Tuscaloosa just one month earlier, he admits it didn’t fully affect him until it was his own hometown on the news that was missing buildings, trees and homes that had been there just the day before.

In all the havoc, McMurray’s home was demolished except for a front wall and a brick fireplace. Though his parents had sold the house a while back, McMurray says he always wanted to go back and buy it, and now he laments the fact that he’ll never be able to walk through it again.

“Now, I think of the Miranda Lambert song, ‘The House that Built Me,’ about going home to visit the place where you are raised and experiencing the flood of memories she describes,” he says. “I can’t do that. My house is gone. I can’t even walk through it.” Still, the Earnhardt Ganassi Racing driver says he’s confident Joplin will recover — even if not in his lifetime — and has every intention of helping it get back on its feet.

“I am committed to being a part of Joplin’s recovery,” he explains. “It’s too important to ignore.”